Card toy for two player games

ABSTRACT

Provided herein is a card toy for two player games that enables the players to quickly determine whether or not a combination is attained even with a variety of combinations. The card toy for two player games includes one play field for playing the game and a deck of cards for each player. Each deck of cards includes two sorts of cards, monster cards and skill cards. A combination indicator and a decision mark indicator are disposed along one side of each monster card and each skill card. In placing the cards in a standby area  9 , the cards are overlapped one on another by shifting the cards such that some of the decision marks in the combination indicators of the respective cards may be arranged in a matrix.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a card toy for two player games.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a typical existing card toy for two player games, wins and losses are determined between the cards played by a player and those played by the opponent player by offsetting points corresponding to the offensive power and defensive power of the cards placed by the player on the play field and points corresponding to the offensive power and defensive power of the cards placed by the opponent player on the play field. Such card toy for two player games includes a plurality of cards each having a combination indicator on a playing face. With such card toy, a game proceeds according to rules of play whereby a predetermined effect is exerted when a predetermined combination is attained by an arrangement of the combination indicators of some selected from the cards.

Another existing card toy employs rules of play whereby a predetermined effect is exerted based on a combination of picture symbols (combination indicators) shown on the respective playing faces of the cards opened on the player field. In either case, however, since the card size is limited, the contents and positions of picture symbols and a combination indicator that can be shown on the playing face of the card are also limited. Further, as the combination of combination indicators is diversified, it cannot quickly be determined in many cases whether or not a predetermined combination is attained.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a card toy for two player games that enables the players to quickly determine whether or not a predetermined combination is attained even with a variety of combinations.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a card toy for two player games that encourages the players to strategically play the game with changing offensive power levels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A card toy for two player games according to the present invention comprises two decks of a plurality of cards to be respectively used by two players. The cards in each deck include a plurality of standby cards to be used in the game, and each standby card has a combination indicator shown on a card surface or a playing face of the card. Each player has a hand of a plurality of cards, and each player places on the player's play field a group of standby cards picked up from one or both of the player's deck and hand such that all of the combination indicators of the respective standby cards can be recognized at a glance on the play field. Two players play a game according to rules of play whereby a predetermined effect can be exerted when a predetermined combination is attained by a combination of the combination indicators shown on the group of standby cards placed on the play field. The combination indicator of each standby card includes one or more sorts of one or more decision marks disposed along one side of the playing face. The combination indicators of the respective standby cards are configured such that some of the decision marks in the combination indicators of the respective standby cards may be arranged in a matrix when the standby cards in the group of standby cards are placed on the play field by overlapping the standby cards one on another with the one side of each standby card being shifted in one direction such that all of the combination indicators shown on the respective standby cards can be seen alongside of one another.

With such arrangement as providing the combination indicator on the playing face of each standby card, and overlapping the standby cards one on another with the one side of each standby card being shifted in one direction, the players can quickly determine whether the predetermined combination is attained simply by observing how the decision marks are arranged in the matrix without taking account of the picture symbols shown on the standby cards. Thus, the players can smoothly proceed with the games even with diversified combinations.

It is arbitrary what rules are employed in utilizing the combination indictors and decision marks. For example, when defining as a row an arrangement of the decision marks disposed along one side of the playing face of each standby card, and defining as a column an arrangement of the decision marks located in one direction in which one side of the standby card is shifted, the rules of play may include a rule whereby the predetermined effect can be exerted when the marks are arranged in a matrix according to the predetermined combination in a different direction from a direction in which the rows extend. Alternatively, for example, the rules of play may include a rule whereby the predetermined effect can be exerted when the decision marks arranged in a matrix are located in one or more columns according to the predetermined combination. According to such rules, the players can readily determine whether or not the predetermined combination is attained merely by visually checking an arrangement of some of the decision marks. This helps the game more smoothly proceed.

In the rules of play, it is arbitrary what predetermined effect is exerted when some of the decision marks are arranged. For example, assume that the cards include a plurality of attack cards each capable of delivering an attack and that each attack card has on a playing face a plurality of attack values indicative of a plurality of offensive power levels to be exerted by the attack card. In this case, the effect can be defined as follows: when defining as one combination point a point which the player can obtain when the decision marks are arranged in a matrix according to the predetermined combination, the rules of play may include a rule whereby the number of one or more combination points obtained by the player determines which of the attack values for the attack card can be applied in the attack. Here, the term “combination” refers to a predetermined combination of some decision marks that are obliquely arranged in the column or matrix wherein the decision marks are located. According to such rule, the player, who has disposed more decision marks than the opponent player according to the predetermined combination, can advantageously proceed with the game. As a result, the players can play the game full of chance and strategy with changing offensive power levels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a scene that preparations for a game to be played with the card toy for two player games of the present invention have been completed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example monster card.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example skill card.

FIG. 4 illustrates decision marks shown on the playing face of the card.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing one turn of the game.

FIGS. 6A and 6B respectively illustrate a card in an active state and the one in a rolled state.

FIGS. 7A to 7C illustrate an evolution process of a monster card.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the puzzle phase.

FIG. 9 illustrates two attained combinations.

FIG. 10 illustrates six attained combinations.

FIG. 11 illustrates no attained combinations.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the attack phase.

FIG. 13 illustrates a play field of an offending player.

FIG. 14 illustrates a play field of a defending player.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Now, an embodiment of the card toy for two player games according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example scene where one player places a set of cards on the player's play field when playing a game with a card toy for two player games of the present invention. The card toy for two player games of the present invention includes two sets of cards to be used respectively by two players. As illustrated in FIG. 1, each player makes preparations for the game by placing the cards on the player's play field. In the course of playing the game, the two players, a first player and a second player, face each other with two play fields interposed between the two players. A set of game components for the first player and another set of game components for the second player are common except what cards are included in each set. The set of game components for the first player will be described below. When referring to the set of game components for the second player, a prime symbol (′) is affixed to a reference sign allocated to a counterpart game component for the first player, omitting the description thereof.

In the embodiment presented herein, a card toy 1 for two player games includes one sheet of play field 3 for playing the game and one deck of cards for each player. One deck of cards include two sorts of cards, namely, a plurality of monster cards MC which can be used as either of attack cards having changing offensive power and standby cards and a plurality of skill cards SC which can be used as either of cards to be used in the play with no or invariable offensive power and standby cards. FIG. 2 illustrates an example monster card. FIG. 3 illustrates an example skill card. FIG. 4 illustrates decision marks shown on the card.

On each monster card MC, as illustrated in FIG. 2, an attribute indicator ATI, a cost indicator COI, a defensive power indicator DEI, an offensive power indicator OFI, an effect indicator EFI, an evolution indicator EVI, a name indicator NI, a combination indicator CI, and a decision mark indicator DMI are provided.

On each skill card SC, as illustrated in FIG. 3, an attribute indicator ATI, a cost indicator COI, an effect indicator EFI, a name indicator NI, a combination indicator CI, and a decision mark indicator DMI are provided.

The combination indicator CI is disposed along one of a pair of shorter sides of each card, and a decision mark indicator DMI is provided inside the combination indicator CI. As illustrated in FIG. 4, there are six sorts of decision marks.

When used as a monster card MC, the monster card MS should be oriented as illustrated in FIG. 2. When used as a standby card, however, the monster card should be oriented upside down. This also applies to the skill card SC.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the play field for playing the card game is constituted from a monster area 5 for the player to deploy five monster cards MC, an attack area 7 for one or more monster cards MC to be deployed for delivering an attack to the opponent player, a standby area 9 for standby cards, a life yard 11 for life cards indicative of the player's life (a pile of the life cards decreases when the player receives damage, and the player loses the game when no life card is left in the pile), a stack yard 13 for a stack of cards, and a discard yard 15 for discarded cards.

<Preparations for the Game>

(1) A player picks up five initial monster cards MC from the player's deck and deploys them in the monster area 5 and places a stack of the remaining cards face down in the stack yard 13. A stack includes 40 to 60 cards.

(2) The player draws five cards from the top of the stack, and places a pile of the cards face down in the life yard 11 without checking what cards are drawn.

(3) The player draws five cards from the top of the stack and uses them as a hand of cards HC.

(4) The player draws three cards from the top of the stack and places them in the standby area 9. As described before, the cards are placed upside down such that the combination indicator CI and the decision mark indictor DMI are located in an upper position.

<A Turn of the Game>

In this embodiment, one turn is constituted from six phases, an activation phase, a draw phase, a main phase, a puzzle phase, an attack phase, and a refresh phase (See FIG. 5).

<Activation Phase>

In the activation phase, the player selects one of monster cards MC which are rolled (turned on its side or laterally oriented) and activates the card to be available for defense.

As illustrated in FIG. 6A, the state in which the monster card MC is longitudinally oriented is called as “Active”, in which state the card is capable of guard or defense as described later. As illustrated in FIG. 6B, the state in which the monster card MC is laterally oriented is called as “Rolled”, in which state the card is not available for guard or defense as described later.

The player does nothing in the activation phase immediately after the game starts or when there are no rolled monster cards MC.

<Draw Phase>

In the draw phase, the player draws one card from the top of the stack and adds the card to the player's hand.

<Main Phase>

In the main phase, the player uses the card(s) in the hand to evolve the monster(s) and utilizes the skill card(s) SC.

The evolution of a monster card MC is illustrated in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 illustrates how the initial monster (A) as an origin of evolution evolves one stage to be a one-stage evolved monster (first evolution) (B) and then to be a two-stage evolved monster (C) (second evolution). To allow the evolution of a monster card, the player pays some cost as described later (cost payment is not required for zero cost), picks up an evolved monster card MC from the hand, and overlaps the evolved monster card MC on the monster card MC of a previous stage. If the monster card MC of the previous stage is rolled, the rolled monster card becomes active after the evolution. The monster card MC is allowed one evolution in one turn.

The skill card SC can be used by paying some cost as described later (cost payment is not required for zero cost) when a monster card MC having the same attribute as the skill card is deployed on the monster area 5.

<Puzzle Phase>

In the puzzle phase, the player arranges the decision marks DM to attain a predetermined or prescribed combination to use the monster card(s) MC to deliver an attack to the opponent player, or recover the life of the player. The puzzle phase is constructed from steps shown in FIG. 8. When the player places the card(s) in the standby area 9 in the puzzle phase, the cards should be overlapped one on another by shifting the cards such that the decision marks DM in the combination indicators CI of the respective cards may be arranged in a matrix. In the puzzle phase, the following steps are executed:

(1) The player draws one card from the top of the stack, and overlaps the card on the cards placed in any one of cells in the standby area 9 (step PS1).

(2) The player chooses one card from the hand and overlaps the card on the cards placed in any one of the cells in the standby area 9 (step PS2).

(3) One combination point is given to the player if three or more decision marks of the same sort are arranged in a column, which indicates that a combination is attained, when an arrangement of the decision marks DM disposed along one side of the card is defined as a row, and an arrangement of the decision marks DM located in one direction is defined as a column when the cards are overlapped one on another with one side of the card being shifted in one direction (step PS3). The player draws from the stack one additional card per one combination each time the combination is attained, and overlaps the additional card on the cards placed in the cell of the standby area 9 where the combination is attained (step PS4). If another combination is attained owing to the additional card, the player additionally draws one card from the stack and overlaps the card on the cards placed in the cell of the standby area 9 where the combination is attained. The puzzle phase steps end when the combination is no longer attained or the combination is attained for all of six sorts of the decision marks.

FIG. 9 illustrates that two combinations are attained.

FIG. 10 illustrates that six combinations are attained.

FIG. 11 illustrates that no combinations are attained. In the situation of FIG. 11, the cards can be used for cost payment in another turn unless no cards are placed in any of the three cells in the standby area 9.

(4) When the life number is less than 5 and the combination of heart decision marks DM has been attained in step (3) (step PS5), the life is recovered (step PS6). When recovering the life, the player draws one card from the stack and places the drawn card face down on the top of the pile of life cards in the life yard 11 without checking what card is drawn.

<Attack Phase>

In the attack phase, the player delivers an attack to the opponent player to reduce the life of the opponent player. The attack phase is constructed from the steps shown in FIG. 12.

(1) The player moves a monster card MC having the same attribute as the decision mark DM, for which the combination has been attained, to the attack area 7. Then, the player determines the offensive power level according to the combination point(s) obtained by the player (step AS1). In FIG. 9, for example, one combination of diamond decision marks DM and another combination of triangle decision marks DM are attained. Accordingly, the player moves the monster cards MC having attributes corresponding to the decision marks DM to the attack area 7 (See FIG. 13). Then, the player determines the offensive power levels corresponding to two combination points, namely, attack values of 100 and 200 are respectively determined for the cards from the left.

(2) The opponent player determines whether or not to guard against the attack. If guard is determined, attacks should be responded one by one. The guard is accomplished when the defensive power of an active monster card MC′ of the defending player is higher than or equal to the offensive power of the offending player (step AS2). If one monster card MC′ is not enough to guard against the attack, the defensive power of some monster cards MC′ may be summed up such that the defensive power of the defending player is higher than or equal to the offensive power of the offending player. The monster card MC′ which has been used in the guard is rolled. When the defending player receives an attack as illustrated in FIG. 13, for example, the defending player selects monster card(s) MC′ having higher defensive power than the offensive power of 100 and 200, and uses the selected card(s) to guard against the attack, and then rolls the cards used in the guard (See FIG. 14).

(3) If the defending player does not guard against the attack, the defending player receives damage (step AS3). The damaged player draws one life card from the bottom of the pile of life cards in the life yard 11′ and adds the card to the hand.

(4) The offending player returns the monster card MC used in the attack to the monster area 5 (step AS4). Until all of the monster cards MC are returned to the monster area 5, the process goes back to Step AS2 and the steps are repeated (step AS5).

<Refresh Phase>

In the refresh phase, the player prepares for the player's next turn prior to completion of the current turn.

The player leaves the last cards in the respective cells in the standby area 9 for which the combination has been attained and moves the remaining cards to the discard yard 15. If the player has more than seven cards in the hand, the player should pick up some cards to discard in the discard yard 15 in order to make the player's hand include seven cards.

So far, one turn is completed. Following this turn, a turn of the opponent player is started. Until the number of life cards piled in the life yard for either of the two players becomes zero, the turns of the two players are alternately repeated.

According to the embodiment described so far, with such arrangement as providing the combination indicator on the playing face of each standby card, and overlapping the standby cards one on another with the one side of each standby card being shifted in one direction, the players can quickly determine whether or not the combination is attained simply by observing how the decision marks are arranged in a matrix without taking account of the picture symbols shown on the standby cards. Thus, the players can smoothly proceed with the games even with diversified combinations.

In the embodiment described so far, the standby cards are placed such that a pair of longer sides of an upper card partially overlaps a pair of longer sides of a lower card. The standby cards may be placed such that a pair of longer sides of an upper card are shifted with respect to a pair of longer sides of a lower card in a direction in which the shorter sides of the cards extend by width of one decision mark. In this case, a resulting matrix is not a square but a diamond in shape. The present invention is also applicable to this case.

Further, in the embodiment described so far, the combination indicator is constituted from one row of decision marks. Of course, the combination indicator may be constituted from two or more rows of decision marks.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described and shown herein, the present invention should not be construed in a limiting sense. It should be understood that various modifications, rearrangements, and substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims, and all devices, processes, and methods that come within the meaning of the claims, either literally or by equivalence, are intended to be embraced therein. 

1. A card toy for two player games comprising two decks of a plurality of cards to be respectively used by two players, a game proceeding according to rules of play whereby: the plurality of cards in each deck include a plurality of standby cards to be used in the game, each standby card having a combination indicator shown on a card surface; each player has a hand of a plurality of cards; each player places on the player's play field a group of standby cards picked up from one or both of the player's deck and hand such that all of the combination indicators of the respective standby cards can be recognized at a glance on the play field; and a predetermined effect can be exerted when a predetermined combination is attained by a combination of the combination indicators shown on the group of standby cards placed on the play field, wherein the combination indicator of each standby card includes one or more sorts of one or more decision marks disposed along one side of the card surface; and wherein the combination indicators of the respective standby cards are configured such that some of the decision marks in the combination indicators of the respective standby cards may be arranged in a matrix when the standby cards in the group of standby cards are placed on the play field by overlapping the standby cards one on another with the one side of the card surface of each standby card being shifted in one direction such that all of the combination indicators shown on the respective standby cards can be seen alongside of one another.
 2. The card toy for two player games according to claim 1, wherein when an arrangement of the decision marks DM disposed along one side of the card is defined as a row, and an arrangement of the decision marks DM located in one direction is defined as a column when the cards are overlapped one on another with one side of the card being shifted in one direction, the rules of play include a rule whereby the predetermined effect can be exerted when the decision marks are arranged in the matrix according to the predetermined combination in a different direction from a direction in which the rows extend.
 3. The card toy for two player games according to claim 2, wherein the rules of play further include a rule whereby the predetermined effect can be exerted when the decision marks arranged in the matrix are located in one or more columns according to the predetermined combination.
 4. The card toy for two player games according to claim 2, wherein: the plurality of cards include a plurality of attack cards each capable of delivering an attack; each attack card has on a card surface a plurality of attack values indicative of a plurality of offensive power levels to be exerted by the attack card; and when a point which the player can obtain when the decision marks are arranged in the matrix according to the predetermined combination is defined as one combination point, the rules of play include a rule whereby the number of one or more combination points obtained by the player determines which of the attack values for the attack card can be applied in the attack.
 5. The card toy for two player games according to claim 3, wherein: the plurality of cards include a plurality of attack cards each capable of delivering an attack; each attack card has on a card surface a plurality of attack values indicative of a plurality of offensive power levels to be exerted by the attack card; and when a point which the player can obtain when the decision marks are arranged in the matrix according to the predetermined combination is defined as one combination point, the rules of play include a rule whereby the number of one or more combination points obtained by the player determines which of the attack values for the attack card can be applied in the attack. 